VESA LI US. 



THE authority of Galen, at once a despotism and a 

 religion, was scarcely ever called in question until the 

 sixteenth century. No attempt worth recording was 

 made during thirteen hundred years to extend the 

 boundary of scientific knowledge in anatomy and phy- 

 siology. It is true that the scholastic philosopher, Albertus 

 Magnus, who was for a short time (1260-1262) Bishop 

 of Ratisbon, in the middle of the thirteenth century 

 wrote a " History of Animals," which was a remarkable 

 production for the age in which he lived ; although Sir 

 Thomas Browne, in his famous " Enquiries into Common 

 Errors," speaks of these " Tractates " as requiring to be 

 received with caution, adding as regards Albertus that 

 " he was a man who much advanced these opinions by 

 the authoritie of his name, and delivered most conceits, 

 with strickt enquirie into few." 



As regards human anatomy, it was considered, during 

 the Middle Ages, to be impiety to touch with a scalpel 

 "the dead image of God," as man's body was called. 



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